Last stretch cycling to Whangarei and last night I slept by a railway! The tracks seemed to be unused until I saw the lights coming in the distance. Luckily, it was the only train of the night and turned out to make some great photos!
Hidden spot far from the busy road
Such a beautiful rainbow coming out of the sea!!
When I arrived in Whangarei, my plan was to cruise around, check out the marina and try and meet the right people to hitch a ride on a sailboat to Australia. Then I met Amy… My flyer to find a boat will have to wait since it’s a long weekend and everything is closed until Tuesday morning. So let’s go explore the area for the weekend!
What a great choice! We brainstormed to find the best place I could reach by bicycle in less than two hours and where we could surf and hike. Papatua looked good and a good one it was. After some quick shopping at Pack and Save, to buy some food for the weekend, Amy left by car and I followed on my bike. The ride was quite easy. We wanted to camp in the bush but what I saw on the map as the perfect spot to camp in the wild was a sacred Maori land so we ended up at Treasure Island, a nice campground overlooking the ocean.
Climbing up the sacred Maori land for the 360 view!
On Sunday we hiked up a nearby cliff to enjoy the 360 view over the town, the coast and the bays. There are two parts to the town, north and south but they are divided by water. You can easily go from one part to the other by walking on a low bridge over the inlet but if you want to go from one part to the other by car, you’ll have to drive over an hour!
Over the bay
What a view!
We set up the hammock to chill out a bit under the sun but once we felt the rain drops we headed back down towards the campground. I decided to pack my stuff while Amy went surfing. Yes, packing stuff on a bike takes way longer than if you have a car… After I finally finished, I joined Amy in the water to take some wave photographs with my GoPro. To get the perfect shot, I set up the GoPro on burst mode to take 30 photographs per second, then body surfed the wave to hopefully get a good pic in the series. It worked pretty good for the first try and I’m happy with the result.
80% of the surf is waiting for the good waves to come 😉
First attempt to wave photography with my gopro
Second attempt… maybe a bit better
Third attempt! The best so far!
We headed back toward Whangarei with a stop midway in a really cool spot by the water. I made crêpes to go with dinner (I’m French after all!)… I had tried earlier in the morning with coconut flour but the result was horrible and didn’t look like crêpes at all. At least now, we know. Use normal flour.
Good spot for a break!
Finally back to town and a last coffee before Amy has to head back home and then I will spend the night in jail… also known as the Whangarei backpackers.
Was a great long weekend. Now back to making those flyers….
The cell block… A backpackers made in an 1960’s old Jail
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